Interviews

Phantasy Star Universe

GameSpy chats with Sonic Team's Akio Setsumasa, Network Engineer on Phantasy Star Universe, to discuss the development of an online, cross-platform role-playing game.

In the third in our exclusive series of interviews, GameSpy brings you details from Sonic Team Network Engineer Akio Setsumasa on the decision-making and development behind Sega's upcoming cross-platform online RPG, Phantasy Star Universe.

GameSpy: Thanks for taking the time to discuss the development of Phantasy Star Universe's online component. Phantasy Star Universe is one of a very small group of online role-playing games that can be played across multiple platforms. Why was the decision made to bring PSU to the Xbox 360, PS2, and PC?

Akio Setsumasa: For Phantasy Star Universe, we wanted to make the game as easily accessible to as many people as possible so that everyone could enjoy the game. In the beginning, we couldn't decide which platform to develop the online functionality for, and we conducted a lot of research on different platforms to see which ones had the most success with online communities. What we learned was that both PC and PS2 were the most viable consoles to develop for and later on, as we were able to become more familiar with the Xbox 360, we realized there was a great opportunity there as well.

GameSpy: How was the development of the online multiplayer portion of Phantasy Star Universe different from the single player game? Was the same team involved on both projects?

Setsumasa: The same team worked on both single-player and online multiplayer. To ensure a smooth transition from single-player gameplay and functionality, to online multiplayer, we needed to share the game system as much as possible. So the most challenging work was coordinating differences between online and offline.

GameSpy: Are there any features in PSU that will be exclusive to one platform over the others, or will all platforms get essentially the same game?

Setsumasa: Because Phantasy Star Universe will be available on all three platforms (PC, PS2, Xbox 360), each platform will essentially be the same game, but on the Xbox 360, there will be additional features via Xbox Live such as voice chat. In addition, gamers will be able to connect and play with others worldwide including Japan and Europe.